‘Self care’ is a very important part of being a Primary health care worker. Whether you work in a remote, rural or urban health care setting you need to, as part of your job, think about and plan how to manage the stress you will experience as an Indigenous health care worker. Planning and sorting out these things before critical situations occur means you will manage your responsibilities more effectively. Click on these images to learn more about how to self care as an Aboriginal and/or Primary health care worker.

Personal strategies

Experiencing stress is part of living. When stress impacts on a person's life to the extent that they cannot function it becomes a 'distress' and can cause serious health problems.

Stress management requires an individual approach. The activities that help relieve stress for one person may not work for another. When under stress we may start to neglect healthy living practices such as:

• eating good food
• maintaining fitness
• deep breathing
• making time for relaxation
• finding an interest or hobby
• taking a holiday
• linking into a support network
• avoiding bad habits or overindulgence
• setting a daily schedule or routine
• goal setting
• growing a garden
• caring for a pet
• taking time out for ourselves, pampering ourselves
• creating stillness.

For more information, articles, tips and links, go to Managing Stress at Work.

Organisational strategies

Sometimes the way an organisation operates can contribute to the stress levels of employees. Interaction with high-needs clients can be very stressful for health workers.

There are steps that can be taken within the organisation to reduce stress. Some organisational strategies to reduce workplace stress include:

• increase employees' sense of control and participation in the workplace
• ensure that employees have the ability to have input into issues concerning the organisation
• increase the skill level of employees, as employees need to be stimulated, challenged and motivated
• increase the levels of social support by ensuring employees have the opportunity to debrief about issues that arise
• ensure job demands are at a 'healthy' level, as employees need to work at a reasonable pace and not be overloaded
• improve the physical working conditions eg provide good furniture, lighting, amenities
• ensure that staff have healthy work schedules
• provide job security and career development
• acknowledge high stress areas in the workplace and provide rewards and incentives.

Work-life balance

Work-life balance policies can be described as policies that help employees meet the needs of both their work life and their personal life. They include a wide variety of policies such as:

• leave arrangements – eg carer’s leave, study/training leave, career breaks, and cultural leave
• policies relevant to parenting and pregnancy – eg paid/unpaid parental leave, breastfeeding facilities, lactation breaks, assistance with child care
• flexible working arrangements – eg job sharing, time off in lieu, gradual retirement
• additional work provisions – eg counselling services, health programs, exercise facilities, relocation assistance.

For more information go to Work Family and Lifestyle.